Look To Yourself Before You E-mail Others

One thing I always make a point of doing when I don’t understand something or if an issue seems wrong, incorrect, a problem or “broken” is to double-check that my actions or lack of knowledge is not leading to that incorrect perception.  I don’t whip off e-mails to my contacts making demands or accusations that I simply have no experience or knowledge about.  Unfortunately, this methodology seems to make me a rare commodity.

Almost daily, I get e-mails where folks are making demands, claiming something is wrong, broken or needs to be fixed.  Whether it be on their Web site, with their e-mail or those who feel the need to send their demands about how I should run my site.

I know I don’t know everything. I know there are things out there that I can learn about — and do almost every day.   Never would I think to e-mail an expert in their field and tell them they are wrong when I do not have one iota of the experience or knowledge they do!

What amazes me is how many onliners think they know it all enough to point fingers, make accusations and come to wrong assumptions without thinking for a moment that the issue at hand could be due to their lack of knowledge, information or an incorrect perception.

How very bold we are when safely hiding behind these screens….

In the last several days alone I’ve a handful of onliners send me nasty and accusatory e-mails about issues they perceived incorrectly.  All claimed that something was broken or “wrong” that I needed to address ASAP!!   Why nasty and accusatory right out the gate? How about a nice “I was wondering what would cause this situation…” to find out what one doesn’t know before assuming?  Instead these folks decided to send rude e-mails making claims that simply were not true and to be honest clearly reflected their ignorance about the issues at hand.

The moral of the story is, if you think something is amiss — simply e-mail with courtesy first, with a nice and humble inquiry about what you perceive is happening (placing no blame nor making any accusations) and you may find you were not only incorrect with that perception,  but you will save face and probably learn something new in the process.

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